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Forum Maintenance 10/4 from 5pm to 6pm Pacific Time

Scheduled maintenance period from 05:00 PM to 06:00 PM Pacific Time on Wednesday October 4th, 2023.
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Corvette Today: Corvette News & Headlines, Early October 2023

The automotive industry is going through a tumultuous time right now with the United Auto Workers striking the Big 3 automakers. Your CORVETTE TODAY host, Steve Garrett, teams up again with Keith Cornett from CorvetteBlogger to bring you the most up-to-date information in the world of Corvette. https://youtu.be/N-JFEwaK2PQ?si=u3tepRnTgFEcCKAM; https://podcasts.adorilabs.com/corve...AyWJ7BnoEURVpA

Besides the UAW strike, here are some of the other Corvette topics that Steve and Keith will discuss:

1. 2024 Corvette production started on Monday, September 18th

2. Two ZR1 prototypes are spotted in Colorado with no wheel coverings and no exhaust sounds

3. A C3 Corvette gets a "Mako-over" into a Mako Shark II

4. A C8 Z06 falls off a lift at a dealership

5. A 2023 70th Anniversary Z06 sells at Mecum for $247,500

6. A Chevy Silverado rolls over a C8 Corvette....ON PURPOSE!

Every other week, CORVETTE TODAY brings you the latest news in the world of Corvette to keep you informed on what's happening with America's Sports Car!
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2024 & 2023 Corvette Info Including E-Ray, SR & Z06 Pricing, SR & Z06 Visualizers, 70th Anniversary Info, Press Releases for SR & Z06 & Their Build & Price, Order Guides & Visualizers

2024 Order Guide Here: https://www.gmfleetorderguide.com/NA...=22639&type=0#
2023 Corvette Brochure: https://www.chevrolet.com/content/da...D7Q0fp8nIEE57Y
E-Ray Visualizer: https://visualizer.chevrolet.com/ui?...US&channel=b2c
Official E-Ray Press Release: https://www.midenginecorvetteforum.c...-press-release
Official GM E-Ray Pictures: https://www.midenginecorvetteforum.c...and-visualizer
+ 25 KEY E-Ray Components/Factors: https://www.midenginecorvetteforum.c...rs-information
E-Ray Leaked Info/Visualizer: https://www.midenginecorvetteforum.c...tte-e-ray-leak
Z51 & Z06 GM Track Specs: https://www.midenginecorvetteforum.c...ecommendations
Z06 BUILD & PRICE: https://www.chevrolet.com/performanc...d-price/config
Z06 Order Guide: https://www.gmfleetorderguide.com/NA...D=22412&type=0
Z06 MSRP and Options Pricing: https://www.midenginecorvetteforum.c...freight-charge
2023 SR Build & Price: https://www.midenginecorvetteforum.c...up-and-running
*2023 SR & Z06 Official Owners Manual: https://www.corvetteblogger.com/docs...ersManual.pdf; and,
https://www.midenginecorvetteforum.c...owner-s-manual
* 2023 GM Bash Major Seminar with HQ video: https://www.midenginecorvetteforum.c...ore-bash-video
*2023 Stingray Visualizer: https://visualizer.chevrolet.com/ui?...US&channel=b2c
* COPMPLETE 2023 STINGRAY PRICING: https://www.corvetteactioncenter.com...ion-Center.pdf
*2023 Stingray (ONLY Order Guide: https://www.gmfleetorderguide.com/NA...D=22412&type=0
*70th Anniversary Combined Press Release For SR & Z06: https://www.midenginecorvetteforum.c...iversary-model
*Z06 Press Release: https://www.midenginecorvetteforum.c...-press-release
*Z06 Reveal Pictures: https://www.midenginecorvetteforum.c...eveal-pictures
*Z06 Visualizer: https://visualizer.chevrolet.com/ui?...US&channel=b2c
Order Guide (unofficial): https://www.midenginecorvetteforum.c...-action-center
*Z06 vs Z07 Aero Components: https://www.midenginecorvetteforum.c...s-similarities
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GM Uses Smart Manufacturing To Save Time & Money

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  • GM Uses Smart Manufacturing To Save Time & Money

    The #D printing is the key to this story.

    Originally posted by Detroit News
    GM USes Smart Manufacturing To Save Time, Money (By Nora Naughton



    Delta Township — One man and a 3-D printer have saved General Motors Co. $300,000 over the last two years.

    GM’s largest 3-D printer, which cost roughly $28,000, is housed in a room near the cafeteria at its Lansing Delta Township Assembly Plant, which builds the Chevrolet Traverse and Buick Enclave.

    It’s manned by Zane Meike, who says his skills with the 3-D printer are mostly self-taught. Meike’s job is to provide the plant with what’s known as “additive manufacturing” parts.
    Zane Meike, an additive manufacturing lead at General Motors' Lansing Delta Township Assembly Plant, shows a VIN template he created on an in-house 3-D printer. (Photo: Matthew Dae Smith, AP)


    That means he’s designing pieces and gadgets for the plant floor that he can quickly 3-D print in order to help keep the line moving smoothly. Right now, he’s not printing parts for cars.

    Meike, a member of the United Auto Workers who works in the printer room with an engineer, showed off a tool he printed recently — used for engine and transmission VIN number alignment. GM used to order that tool from a vendor for $3,000 a pop. Meike prints them now for just under $3.

    That’s just the latest smart-manufacturing technology to hit the Lansing Delta floor. Opened in 2006, Lansing Delta Township assembly is GM’s newest plant in the U.S. aside from the Brownstown Battery Assembly plant opened in 2009. Lansing Delta has been one of the pioneers of the automaker’s manufacturing technologies in recent years.

    From “collaborative robots” that help calibrate adaptive-cruise systems and automatic headlights to Meike’s 3-D printer, there’s a slew of new technology workers are scrambling to keep up with.

    The UAW-GM department has taken most of its apprenticeship and training in-house so it can focus more acutely on the rapidly changing technology on GM’s plant floors, said Steve Long, the UAW-GM department’s coordinator for skilled trades.

    For the last two years, the department’s apprentice program has done more classroom instruction at the UAW-GM Center for Human Resources in Detroit. The program is churning out electricians and die-makers to fill positions caused by retirements among those workers.

    But it’s also training workers in robotics and analytics, with the ultimate goal being a plant floor equipped with digital tablets that monitor the high-tech equipment.

    “Our challenge is to make sure our members are prepared to maintain, install and debug this equipment as it comes through,” Long said after a robotics demonstration on the Lansing Delta plant floor. “Our trades guys historically weren’t concerned about the quality and the metrics and all of the things that go with it, but they need to understand what all of that is.”

    There’s also an effort underway to develop entirely new apprenticeships to teach specific skills like 3-D printing, Long said.

    That could be crucial for meeting GM’s needs. There are already 18 GM plants with 3-D printers — the one at Lansing Delta is the largest — but the ultimate goal is to make them a standard piece of equipment in every plant, said Dan Grieshaber, GM’s director of global manufacturing integration.

    And the need for actual workers is still very real!

    “The whole people side of this is really critical to us,” Grieshaber said. “The technology is largely about making our people more productive and helping them operate safely; helping them operate efficiently and helping our systems become more productive.”

    That’s a lesson Silicon Valley rival Tesla Inc. learned recently as it tried to find its way out of what CEO Elon Musk called “production hell.” Musk said earlier this year that production of its crucial Model 3 was challenged by the level of automation the company initially installed on the production line.

    The Model 3 repeatedly missed production deadlines until this weekend, when the company reached its milestone of building 5,000 Model 3 vehicles in the final week of the quarter.

    “People are infinitely flexible,” said Kristin Dziczek, the Center for Automotive Research’s vice president. “You don’t have to program people. You do have to train them, but they can adapt and change on the fly much more fluidly than machines.”

    GM is focusing on “surgically applied” smart manufacturing rather than “technology for technology’s sake,” Grieshaber said.

    That’s demonstrated in Meike’s 3-D printing operation, in robotic gloves GM developed with help from NASA to help workers grip heavy pieces of equipment, and in a variety of collaborative robots on the plant floor.

    “Integrating new technology with existing technology,” Grieshaber said, “is really important.”

    [email protected]

    Twitter: @noranaughton



    https://www.detroitnews.com/story/bu...ney/741617002/
    2023 Z06: Elkhart Lake Blue, 2-tone blue interior, HTC, Standard Z06 with Z07 aero pkg, CCB’s, 3LZ, E60, every visible carbon fiber option including wheels, Jake Design Pkg. Lifetime, annual contributors, and 25 year NCM members. Home is the beautiful Pacific Northwest.

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